28 president's address. 



to the soil than the ash from the burning of heaps of dry timber. 

 This is frequently demonstrated, in a smaller way, in orchard- 

 lands, results showing that fruit-trees planted in "green land" — 

 that is, directly the living forest has been cleared off — do not thrive 

 as well as those set out in land in which the trees and scrnb had 

 been killed and retained, before being taken up for an orchard. 



On some of the ringbarked western lands, the owners now find it 

 is often advisable to leave all the smaller bits of wood and bark 

 from the dead trees, upon the surface of the ground, when clearing 

 up; for they act as a mulch, and keep the surface-soil from being 

 cut up and blown away by the action of the summer sun and winds. 



The stocking of the country in the western lands and the conse- 

 quent suppression of bush-fires on the plains and in open country, 

 from the absence of grass, brought about other conditions. One of 

 the most conspicuous of these, was the appearance of millions of 

 small pine-trees, which overran thousands of acres of land on the 

 back-blocks of the Lachlan and other parts of Western New South 

 Wales, land which had previously been open and lightly timbered, 

 or well grassed plains. 



This became so noticeable about 1880, that many theories were 

 advanced to explain the cause of this wonderful growth of pine- 

 seedlings. The most general idea was that the wholesale ring- 

 barking, which had been instituted by the squatters for some years, 

 not so much to improve the scrub-lands, as to secure the leaseholds 

 against the free selectors, had brought about this new evil. 



There were, however, probably several causes, all working to- 

 gether. First, the stocking of the land with sheep to its fullest 

 capacity, as was the custom about this time, left no dry summer 

 grass, and there were consequently no bush-fires. Next, ring- 

 barking the existing timber opened the soil to light and air, but, 

 in consequence of the value of the timber for fencing and house- 

 building, all the large, mature, cypress pine-trees were left un- 

 touched; therefore, the pine seeds dropped on to resting soil, and 

 were scattered far and wide by the wind. Thousands of sheep 

 passing through the dead scrub, and finding shade under the big 

 pine-trees, helped to bury the seeds in the loose soil. 



